What started off as a way to fend off boredom has grown into a rather sizable collection of our food experiences. Although predominately in Hong Kong and Malaysia, we hope to add onto it as we travel. Comments and recommendations from fellow foodies always welcomed. Happy eating!

Friday, October 26, 2012

Adventure #120: Yaochi Okonomiyaki (Osaka)

Today we ventured outside of Osaka city centre to visit the Osamu Tezuka Manga Comic Museum and the Nissin Ramen Museum. After the Manga Comic Museum, the kids were hungry again. They seemed to be hungry all the time in Japan. So, we decided to find food around the Takarazuka station before heading out.

We saw an okonomiyaki restaurant. Okonomiyaki, which is said to have originated from Osaka, is a kind of Japanese savoury pancake containing a variety of ingredients and is very popular in the Kansai region. The batter is made of flour, grated nagaimo (a type of yam), water or dashi, eggs and shredded cabbage, and usually contains other ingredients such as green onion, meat, seafood, vegetables, kimchi, mochi or cheese.

The restaurant looked very interesting, the patrons all ate in front of a giant hot grill plate. Food quality aside, this would a good dining experience.

Eating utensils

Fried udon wrapped in omelet topped with ketchup.

Kids loved this dish the best.

On the left was beef okonomiyaki and on the right was modan-yaki, okonomiyake served with a layer of fried noodles (in this case, fried udon) on top

﻿We were not too impressed with the okonomiyaki and G really didn't like (he thinks even plain pot noodles taste 10x better). I think it was because they topped everything with the Japanese BBQ sauce and mayonnaise. Everything tasted much the same. Maybe if we had it without the mayo it would have been better. But we will never know......nevertheless, you have to experience everything once and this was certainly an interesting food experience.